The guns of Mogadishu are seldom silent. Since Somalia's last functioning government fell in 1991, the sound of militiamen clearing their weapons by firing into the air has become as common as the muezzin's call to prayer. This year, however, the bullets' trajectories have been horizontal rather than vertical. More than 300 people mostly civilians, including women & children have been killed during battles raged across the city. More than 100 have died during the past week alone. Militiamen have taken over the hospital run by the Red Cross. The fledgling government is stuck in Baidoa, a town to the east of the capital, powerless to intervene. It is the sort of scenario that normally acts like a magnet for foreign correspondents. Jet into the city, interview a few combatants, nip into the hospital see a few wounded civilians, & you have a colourful piece ready to run alongside a picture of teen brandishing an AK-47. In this story, there is even the added spice of clandestine CIA ... http://www.guardian.co.uk

U.S. troops fired in self defense when a road accident in Kabul triggered a riot, the military said on Wednesday, as Afghan lawmakers demanded the prosecution of a soldier driving a runaway truck that killed at least five people. "Our initial investigation ... shows fire came from the crowd, and our soldiers used their weapons to defend themselves," Colonel Tom Collins said, giving the fullest U.S. account so far of events on Monday that led to the worst anti-American riots in the city since the Taliban's ouster in 2001.Afghan officials say five people were killed by a truck that the U.S. military say suffered brake failure coming down a hill. Seven people were killed in the bloody aftermath.But Collins, speaking at a news conference, said Afghan ministries had told the U.S. military the total number of dead from the accident and riots was 20, and even two days on there was no definitive toll....http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060531/ts_nm/afghan_usa_dc

Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas has said that he and his coalition government were stepping down after Labor, the biggest government party, withdrew from the minority coalition.Analysts said they now expected lengthy efforts to build a new coalition government, with the possibility of fresh elections if that proved unsuccessful.Whatever government emerges, little change is seen in the pro-western foreign policy of the Baltic state, which joined the European Union and NATO in 2004.Brazauskas, 73, a political veteran in eastern Europe who transformed himself from Lithuania's last communist leader into one of its first democratic presidents and later prime minister, said he was considering retiring from politics....http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/05/31/lithuania.politics.reut/index.html?section=cnn_world

Venezuela is buying helicopters, boats and military transport planes in defense deals worth $2.7 billion to modernize its military as tension grows between leftist President Hugo Chavez and the United States. Flush with oil profits but blocked from buying U.S. arms, Mr. Chavez is increasingly looking to countries like Russia and Spain as suppliers. A cargo ship carrying 30,000 Russian-made Kalashnikov assault rifles is headed to Venezuela, with the first shipment of an order totaling 100,000 guns to arrive by year's end. The military is seeking to buy more submarines, and Mr. Chavez is planning an even bigger deal for Russian fighter jets. "The United States is failing in its attempt to blockade us, to disarm us," Mr. Chavez said after announcing the first shipment of assault rifles. Washington has pointed to the mounting defense deals with concern and urged Russia and Spain not to do business with Venezuela. Both countries have shrugged off the warnings. ...http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20060530-104621-4916r.htm

Iran, apparently anticipating an American invasion, has quietly been restructuring its military and testing a new military doctrine that calls for a decentralized, Iraqi-style guerrilla campaign against an invading force. Iran's military planners are acutely aware that a military confrontation with technologically more advanced U.S. armed forces would be rapid and multifronted, unlike the static and slow-paced 1980-88 war with Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Therefore, a series of war games have been carried out since late last year to test the army's readiness. In December, more than 15,000 members of the regular armed forces participated in an exercise in northwestern Iran's strategically sensitive Azerbaijan border provinces that focused on irregular warfare carried out by highly mobile army units, according to the official MENA news agency. A second exercise was conducted in the majority-Arab province of Khuzestan in September, according to ...http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20060531-121559-6573r.htm

Zimbabwe is introducing a bank note worth 100,000 Zimbabwe dollars, to help consumers as inflation exceeds 1,000%. The note will be worth about $1 at the official exchange rate, but only $0.30 on the informal market. The 50,000 Zimbabwe dollar bill, introduced only four months ago, is not enough to buy a loaf of bread. The government on Tuesday used its mineral exports to gain access to a $50m loan from a European bank, to pay for essential fuel and drugs. "It is not the first and last time to see us introducing bearer cheques and we will not hesitate to introduce higher denominations," Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono said, according to the state-run Herald newspaper. The bills are known as bearer cheques since they are promissory notes rather than official legal tender, but are used in Zimbabwe in the same way as money. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5032826.stm